There is some state law or policy here in Colorado that municipalities can't get involved in providing cable or broadband service as a utility unless each town's voters approve it, and that is moving along in our region.

I am on the town utilities grid, so they sent me a survey about what I would pay for better/faster internet. It seemed to ask the same question several times, and I got tired of trying to figure out the differences between the first two or three times they asked if I am willing to pay more per month with no installation fee, or less per month with at least $70 installation fee. Finally, I gave up trying to figure it out and consistently said No, I will not pay $95 a month for basic internet, would rather pay the installation fee.

Getting a better system has become especially relevant lately because last Wednesday we had a big, wet spring snowstorm that wiped out fiber optic cables to the Town of Estes Park. I had phone, but no Internet for a couple of days, but even better all those smug town people were also without cell phones, credit card terminals, and internet. Now they know how the rest of us live more often than we care to think about. I have a feeling getting that service down to my house is not going to happen in my lifetime because once the people in town are all taken care of, they will forget out the outlying areas.

When I got to town Wednesday morning, the southbound traffic lights were so filled with snow, it looked like they were all out - there was no way to tell what color was lit. But the oncoming and cross traffic could see their lights, so they were proceeding as normal. I almost got t-boned before I realized what was the deal was. After that, when I came up to an intersection, I creeped forward until I could see the cross lights and went by that.



This morning the shower knob in the master bath came off, and I knew a plumber would charge $250 to come do something easy, but I didn't know how to begin, and would rather wait 6 weeks for Mr. TroutBend to come from Las Vegas. But aha! The internet!

This is from YouTube:



I realized the screw had come loose, and all I had to do was remove that little cover to fix it. There. All done. Hundreds saved. My day is not ruined.

Plumbers must hate the internet.